"Istanbul is a city of a million cells, and every cell is an Istanbul unto itself." Below the ancient streets of Istanbul, four prisoners-Demirtay the student, the doctor, Kamo the barber, and Uncle Küheylan-sit, awaiting their turn at the hands of their wardens. When they are not subject to unimaginable violence, the condemned tell one another stories about the city, shaded with love and humor, to pass the time. Quiet laughter is the prisoners' balm, delivered through parables and riddles. Gradually, the underground narrative turns into a narrative of the above-ground. Initially centered around people, the book comes to focus on the city itself. And we discover there is as much suffering and hope in the Istanbul above ground as there is in the cells underground. Despite its apparently bleak setting, this is a novel about creation, compassion, and the ultimate triumph of the imagination. "Istanbul, Istanbul turns on the tension between the confines of a prison cell and the vastness of the imagination; between the vulnerable borders of the body and the unassailable depths of the mind. This is a harrowing, riveting novel, as unforgettable as it is inescapable." -Dale Peck, author of Visions and Revisions "A wrenching love poem to Istanbul told between torture sessions by four prisoners in their cell beneath the city. An ode to pain in which Dostoevsky meets The Decameron." -John Ralston Saul, author of On Equilibrium; former president, PEN International

Istanbul Istanbul

Burhan-Sonmez

OR Books

Lovers of Franz K.

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Labyrinth Roman Übers. v. Adatepe, Sabine Deutsch

btb Verlag

Stimmen der Freiheit

Can Dündar

Aslı Erdoğan

Gaye Boralioglu

Şehbal Şenyurt Arınlı

Adil Demirci

Zehra Doğan

Yavuz Ekinci

Eren Keskin

Ismail Küpeli

Osman Okkan

Peter Steudtner

Barış Uygur

Verlag Das Kulturelle Gedächtnis

Labirint

Pandora M

Kuzey

Iletisim

Labirent

Iletisim Yayinevi

Tas ve Gölge

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